RUSH: Here’s Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate yesterday, an expert on patriotism, by the way, calling me unpatriotic.
REID: Rush Limbaugh went way over the line, way over the line. While I respect his right to say anything he likes, his unpatriotic comments I cannot ignore. During his show last Wednesday, Limbaugh was engaged in one of his typical rants. This one was unremarkable, indistinguishable from his usually drivel, [sic] which has been steadily losing listeners for years, until he crossed that line by calling on men and women in uniform who oppose the war in Iraq, and I quote, ‘phony soldiers.’ [sic] This comment was so beyond the pale of decency, and we can’t leave it alone.
RUSH: Except it wasn’t made; it wasn’t in the middle of a rant; it was two words thrown away in a conversation with a phone caller. I think tit-for-tat’s in order here. If Harry Reid is going to call me unpatriotic, then, Senator Reid, you may qualify as a phony patriot. Trying to all of a sudden position yourself now as a supporter of the troops? Can we go back and listen to some previous Harry Reid sound bites? He wants everybody to believe he’s such a supporter, has such love and adoration for the troops. Here is Harry Reid in April of 2007 about the surge and the war in Iraq.
REID: This war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything.
RUSH: Yeah, that’s really inspiring, Senator Reid, that’s really patriotic, that’s really motivational, that ought to get the morale of the troops up. That night he repeated the same smear from the Senate floor.
REID: As long as we follow the president’s path in Iraq, the war is lost.
RUSH: December 16th, 2006, Harry Reid celebrating when he thought Democrats had killed the Patriot Act.
REID: Think of what happened 20 minutes ago in the United States Senate. We killed the Patriot Act. (Applause.)
RUSH: Here is Harry Reid September 7th of this year talking about General Petraeus.
REID: He made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual. It is now not his report; it’s President Bush’s report.
RUSH: So attack General Petraeus, attack the troops, tell ’em they can’t win, the war is already lost, and now today and yesterday, try to make himself out to be a super patriot. It’s not flying, Senator.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: And let’s not forget these other two things about Senator Harry Reid. He told schoolchildren in Nevada that George Bush, the commander-in-chief, was a loser. He essentially called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas illiterate. He was asked what he thought about Thomas, (paraphrasing) ‘He’s not very good; his opinions don’t make any sense; they’re not written very well,’ Harry Reid said. This is a party which cannot survive on the basis of its ideas, the Democrat Party. Liberalism cannot triumph openly in the arena of ideas. It can only triumph by destroying, via character assassination and other things, its opponents. They don’t dare come join us in the arena of ideas for open debate on issues. And if they do, it will soon descend into personal assaults and attacks, as evidenced by Senator Harkin on the floor of the Senate saying things about me that he couldn’t say about any other senator, nor could I say to a senator were I appearing before some committee testifying about something or other, which, by the way, I would love to see.